Watching
by Hotohori Is Sparkly
Summary: Why are there so few demons in modern Japan? ONESHOT


The girl sighed and pushed her long black hair behind her ears. She knew that she should have cut it short ages ago; it wasn't practical for her line of work, but she simply couldn't bring herself to do it. It kept her connected with her past. Besides...once he had told her that he liked long hair. So she would suffer with it even if it did get in the way at the most inopportune moments. Moments like the incident with the Noh mask, it was partially because of her hair that that had happened. 'It won't happen again...besides one slip up in 15 years isn't that bad' She thought to herself. She waited as the girl she had been watching spoke to one of her friends on the corner. She looked down at her guns while her charge continued to talk. They had saved her life as well as the life of her charge many times; not that her charge would ever know it. The younger girl finally ended her conversation and continued walking to her house.  
  
The girl waited until she was sure her charge wouldn't see her before she rounded the corner. She watched from the shadows as the younger girl walked up the steps to a shrine and into a house. Now came her least favorite part, the waiting. She had been following her charge in secret since her charge had been born. She had even been there the first day her charge had fallen into the well. That was the moment it had become real for her; now not only did the life of her charge depend on her; but the lives of countless people in the past had been thrown into the mix. 'What did I get myself into?' she asked herself that day, she still didn't know the answer now...even though it had been almost a year since that moment. She watched the steps leading to the house until she was sure her charge wasn't coming back out. As soon as she was positive she walked to her favorite place to wait; a park bench across the street and downwind from the well house. She always made sure no matter where she waited that it was downwind from the well house...she didn't want him to sniff her out and ruin everything.  
  
It had been exactly three days since her charge had come back through the well and she knew it was time for him to come and drag her charge back. That had been another shock; the first time she had seen him come for her charge. She remembered that she wanted to run after him asking if he remembered her and begging him to come with her. She had barely stopped herself from calling out his name. However, she knew that she could never make her self known to him. While the quest for her had ended half a millennium ago; it had just begun for her charge and the boy. She also knew that by the end of it; his heart would belong to another and it wasn't her place to interfere.  
  
While waiting on the park bench she busied herself with cleaning and looking over her guns. She had two; both of them a painted a pale purple color. She had had them specially made for herself the day after her charge had been born. However, she had learned to use a gun long before she had her special pair made. She had first started using a gun after she realized that carrying around a bow and arrow was both impractical and conspicuous. The hardest part had been learning how to use the guns. She had not only had to learn how to shoot a gun and not miss, not a small feat for a girl that had grown up in feudal Japan, but also how to charge the bullets with her purifying powers. That alone had taken almost a year. She was glad she had done it though; now that she actually lived in modern Japan she realized how silly she would have looked carrying around a bow and a quiver of arrows.  
  
She finished with her guns and put them back in their holsters. The guns weren't the only change she had made to herself over the years. The thing that had been the first to go were her soul stealers. It had taken her a couple of hundred years but she had figured out how to get by without them. Another big change she made was in getting rid of her old miko robes. She still had them; and she sometimes even put them on. She always made sure her companion and fellow protector wasn't home when she did this; one time he had caught her and laughed for days at her "feeble attempts at reliving the past." She hadn't spoken to him for a month after that one.  
  
Her fellow protector...now that was an alliance she wouldn't have thought possible back in the past. She hadn't even known anyone from the past was still alive besides herself until a couple of years ago when he had approached her; told her he knew of what she was doing and saying that he wanted to help. She had been wary of him at first, to the point where she followed him while he followed her charge. He had however, turned out to be ok; almost as good a protector as she herself was. The thought that he had to be ok, because of the fact that everything had worked out in the past didn't occur to her until much later.  
  
She looked down at her watch and sighed when she realized she still had thirty minutes before her companion was supposed to show up and take her place. The girl continued to stare at her watch for several minutes after she had figured out the time. Watches had to be among her favorite inventions. Things that told time...she could never get enough of them. When she first figured out that she wasn't going to die anytime soon, she had started counting down the time until she would be able to see him again. Later when she realized that she could accomplish a much greater purpose she had originally planned she counted down the time until her charges birth.  
  
She stiffened when she felt the presence of a demon; but relaxed when she felt it coming from the area of the well house. It was just him coming to drag her charge back to the past. She watched as he walked to the area under her window and jumped straight up to land on the balcony. After several minutes of watching the window to see if he would come out; she shifted her gaze to the well house. How many times had she thought if she could just jump down the well; she could fix everything in the past and then none of them would be in the mess they were in. She had never tried...mostly because she knew the thing wouldn't let her through and there would be a lot of explaining to do when her charge and the boy found her at the bottom of it.  
  
She returned her attention to the window and watched as the boy jumped down with her charge and the infamous giant yellow back pack. 'What on earth does she put in that thing anyway?' she asked herself. She watched as he put her down and they walked to the well house.  
  
As soon as the couple entered the well house she felt the familiar tingle of demon energy behind her. In one fluid movement she stood up pulled her guns out of their holsters; turned around and pointed them at the offender.  
  
She lowered them to the ground when she realized the offender was none other than her fellow protector. "One of these days I'm not going to check and make sure I don't know the demon...and then you're going to get purified." She said to him as she sat back down. "Aww...you know you don't mean that!" he said with a fangy smirk as he sat down next to her.  
  
She looked over at him; she wasn't the only one that had changed over the years. By the time he had come to her he had already cut his long black hair short. He had also ditched his furs for modern clothes, and she never could figure out how he hid his tail. She never did ask either; she was sure she probably didn't want to know.  
  
They sat in silence for awhile before she said "The charge and her friend have gone down the well...they probably won't be back tonight."  
  
"The charge and her friend" He said in a high falsetto voice, mocking her. "Damnit Kikyou..." he continued in his regular voice "with all that we have been through with them why can't you call them by their names? Kagome and Inuyasha? How hard is that? Say it with me... Ka-go-me and I-nu-ya-sha."  
  
Kikyou glared daggers at him. "You're one to talk Kouga...at least I don't call them My Woman and Dog-Turd."  
  
"I haven't called them that in at least a week." Kouga whined. Kikyou just stared at him. "Ok...it's only been three days..." Kikyou just continued to stare at him. "Do you really expect me to believe that?" She asked.  
  
"Ok...you got me...it's only been two days." He said. Kikyou continued to give him the same cold stare. "Alright Already! It was yesterday afternoon!" he yelled. "Just stop looking at me like that...it's giving me the creeps..." Kikyou obliged him and turned away. "Besides at least I call them Kagome and Inuyasha some of the time...which is more than I can say for you." He finished.  
  
"You wouldn't understand..." Kikyou said. Kouga decided to let the subject drop; he had gotten into more than enough fights with her over the same argument. "Hey! I just realized something!"  
  
"There's a shock..." Kikyou muttered. Kouga chose to ignore the comment...Kikyou was always saying things like that. "Since they most likely won't be back tonight...That means I don't have to sit here all night!"  
  
"Whatever." Kikyou said as she got up and started walking towards the apartment she shared with the wolf demon. She stopped when she realized he wasn't following her. "You coming?" she asked without turning around. She cared a lot more for the wolf demon than she would ever let on; he was after all her only friend. "Yeah...I was just thinking..."  
  
"Don't strain yourself..." She said as she turned around. "I'm being serious here Kikyou..." He said flatly. She walked back over to the bench and sat down next to him. "What about?" She asked; and hoped that he didn't notice she sat a little closer than she needed to.  
  
"What are we going to do when all this is over? I mean...when all this is over for them? When the well seals trapping Kagome on the other side?"  
  
Kikyou often wondered the same things herself...but she didn't know what to tell him. "I...I don't know." She finally answered. "Just go on like we did before she was born I guess..." she finished and looked over at him. 'He looks so...sad....is that how I always looked to hi-Inuyasha?' Kikyou thought. Before she knew what she was doing she had laid her hand on top of his. He looked down at his hand before saying, "I guess we'll just have to figure it out when that time comes huh?"  
  
Kikyou nodded and stood up, "Let's go home..." she said as she began walking again; as if nothing had happened. This time she felt Kouga get up behind her; so she slowed her pace until he caught up. "Do you think you'll stay here when it's all done?" He asked as they walked along. Kikyou nodded, she had always been a girl of few words. "Good," He said as he grabbed her hand, "I don't know who would cook for me if you left." He finished; his bad mood gone as suddenly as it had come. Kikyou looked down at her hand and back up at Kouga; it didn't seem to bother him, so she wasn't going to let it bother her. She tightened her hand around his and asked him "Is that all you ever think about? Food?" "You know it!" he said with a smirk.  
  
'I guess I've changed more than I thought' Kikyou thought as she walked hand in hand with Kouga all the way home.  
  
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AN: Yes...I know what you're thinking Fluff with Kikyou and Kouga O.o... cause that is what I am thinking...this fic wasn't supposed to go like this originally...it was just supposed to be a story about Kikyou...anyway...I got this Idea from a story I read where Inuyasha says "If you thought a miko with purifying arrows was scary; try one with purifying bullets" or something like that...Now I can't remember what story it was...Oh well...This story is strange o.O; about being OOC I figure they both have had 500 some odd years to grow and change...of course they are going to be a little different. If it really bothers you that much...consider it AU ^_^ 


End file.
